2019 US Virgin Islands Code
Title 32 - Sports and Parks
Chapter 10 - Equine Activity Limitation on Liability
§ 185. Liability not prevented or limited; conditions
(a) Section 182 does not prevent or limit the liability of an equine activity sponsor, equine professional, or other person if the equine activity sponsor, equine professional or other person does any of the following:
(1) Provides equipment or tack and knows or should know that the equipment or tack is faulty, and the equipment or tack is faulty to the extent that it is a proximate cause of the injury, death, or damage;
(2) Provides an equine and fails to make reasonable and prudent efforts to determine the ability of the participant to engage safely in the equine activity and to determine the ability of the participant to safely manage the particular equine. A person may not rely upon a participant's representations of his ability unless these representations are supported by reasonably sufficient detail;
(3) Owns, leases, rents, has authorized use of, or otherwise is in lawful possession and control of land or facilities on which the participant sustained injury because of a dangerous latent condition of the land or facilities that is known to the equine activity sponsor, equine professional, or other person and for which warning signs are not conspicuously posted;
(4) Commits a negligent act or omission that constitutes a proximate cause of the injury, death, or damage; or
(5) Injures a participant intentionally.
(b)
(1) In a personal injury action against an equine activity sponsor, equine professional or other person, a defense or immunity described in section 182 may be asserted only if the person injured in the course of an equine activity:
(A) had actual knowledge of the inherent risks of equine activities;
(B) had professed to have sufficient knowledge or experience to be on notice of the inherent risks; or
(C) had been notified of the inherent risks and the limitations of liability.
(2) For the purposes of this subsection, notice of the inherent risks of equine activity may be satisfied either by a statement signed by the person injured or by a sign prominently displayed at the place where the equine activity was initiated. The statement or sign must contain at least the information prescribed in section 186(c).
(c) Nothing in section 182 prevents or limits the liability of an equine activity sponsor, an equine professional or any other person, if that equine activity:
(1) causes injury or death to a person who is not a participant and who is in a place where a reasonable person would not expect an equine activity to occur; or
(2) causes injury or death to a spectator and that spectator was in a place designated or intended by an activity sponsor as a place for spectators except in the case where the spectator approached an equine or positioned himself in an area in which equines were excepted to be located, then the spectator's actions may be considered in determining the liability of an activity sponsor to the extent provided by law.
